 We have been frequently doing day trips and meals out, so this week has been about getting back into a regular routine with homecooked meals. While Fall is still fighting the last days of summer-like heat, I had to turn to a new favorite by heating up Brunswick Stew in my crock pot.
I love this stew because it is hearty, but not too heavy. It is briming with chicken, tomatoes, corn, beans, and potatoes cooked to perfection in chicken stock. I have served this stew in the past with a side salad and bread. To make it special today, I am pulling out the stops and baking a loaf of bread WHICH will make Big Guy happy. Thank goodness we invested in a white flat roof along with the nights being cooler so I will not heat up the house!
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 Big Guy and I tend to be mentally synced, and it is not because we have been married for thirty-eight years. I cannot tell you the number of times we will walk into the same room and realize we are wearing similar colors or the same T-shirt. Yes, we do have “pairs” of shirts, but only because we both liked them.
Which brings me to what happened today. I do not know if it was the installation of our fairy garden, or perhaps we were craving something sweet, but we both declared, at the same time, that I needed to bake a batch of pecan sandies. Ina Garten to the rescue again! Her recipe has spoiled me, and I openly admit it!  Big Guy and I went to get our flu and Covid shots and decided to baby ourselves throughout the day. We stopped for a lovely breakfast @have_a_cow. You can never go wrong with the Ranchers Breakfast which includes eggs, sausage or bacon, potatoes, and toast with homemade jam. YUM!
Fortified with our hearty brunch, we got home and decided to move a couple of plants around before the real force of Fall hits @carondeletgarden. So much for taking it easy! Although for us, it was an easy day since we did not renovate an entire section of our garden like we did last week! By the time dinner rolled around, I was back in baby mode. I wanted comfort food. I know many kids like noodles and butter, but my dad used to make what he called “Greek” spaghetti. The components are the same, but he melted the butter with garlic salt. Once the butter started to bubble and the garlic salt browned, he put the noodles into the sauce and mixed it all together. It was a hug from my childhood!  Big Guy and I have a corner in our garden that was a wasted space, and we were confounded as to what could go into this little rectangular space. After seeing the adorable “mouse” door on Bellerive Boulevard on a recent walk, I got inspired with the idea to create a fairy rock garden. We had tons of rocks that used to be in our garden and got piled into the same corner. With a little imagination, we moved the rocks around and bought rock garden plants to create the perfect environment. With the hard work done, I started looking around for some fairy garden items. Between the Celtic knot door, the mushrooms, and adorable hedgehogs, we now have a whimsical and fun corner in our garden. I guess this is the part where I need to send up a heavenly apology to my parents for putting faces on their trees as a lark. I guess the apple did not fall far from the tree…HA!  Big Guy and I have been talking about doing the circuit of sandwich shops in Saint Louis. We started with @bluescitydeli which is closest to our cottage on the southside. You can never go wrong with any of the sandwiches coming out of this fantastic deli. As their website acknowledges, the “menu is a tip of the hat to many of the blues music cities on the Blues Highway.” Want a Po-Boy? They serve them. Want a Muffuletta? They have those too. Big Guy opted for the Big Tommy which was hot roast beef with grilled peppers and onions served on cheese garlic bread. He did not talk for about fifteen minutes as he enjoyed his sandwich. I went for the Knuckle Sandwich which is not for the faint of heart as it is made with Italian beef, capicola, pepper jack cheese dressed with onion, hot giardiniera and smoke-spicy delta sauce. I was in heaven! Hit the road and stop by this fantastic place. Just remember it is popular so be flexible if you come at lunchtime. The good news is the line moves fast and everyone is always in a great mood there!  Big Guy and I have begun our pasta meal journey with our first jarred marinara sauce. I realize you may wonder why I am jumping right in, but I only have forty more jars to go thanks to our bumper crop of San Marzano tomatoes. You read that correctly even with giving away over a dozen jars to friends and family.
As I was cooking the pasta, I remembered a favorite recipe we used to get at Brazie’s. It was not on the menu, but as a regular, Big Guy knew he could order baked spaghetti anytime we stopped by for a meal. I did my homage to those past meals by combining my noodles and sauce into a baking tray. I covered the top with a mix of mozzarella and parmesan cheese and let the oven do the rest of the magic. It was a lovely way to remember a now closed great restaurant and all the people who worked there. Thanks for the memories!  It is a good thing Fall is only one season of the year! I say this with respect to the joys of Halloween candy and the calorie heavy treats awaiting me in every aisle of the store.
My sure sign of Fall is when I see candy corn and peanuts at the front of the store. It is my favorite combination and reminds me of a Payday candy bar. I usually add pumpkin candy corn into the mix to make it extra fun. I mentioned this “recipe” recently to a friend who was crazy for the idea as she never thought of mixing the two ingredients together. It just made me wonder…how do you like your candy corn…plain or with nuts?  Big Guy and I decided to have a play date followed by work in the garden. We needed mulch and compost so you can hopefully understand why we decided on lunch and shopping first. We had been talking about revisiting the @thedoughdepot in Kimmswick, Missouri ever since we had a wonderful lunch with @nataliejhiggins and her wonderful family. The Doug Depot is known for their “pretzel bread sandwiches, pickle pizza, and poppyseed dressing.” I opted for the BLT and Big Guy went for their Southwest Salad. We were not disappointed as the food was delicious, reasonable, the staff was friendly, and the patio was the perfect spot to enjoy our lunch. We stopped by @spiceryofkimmswickmo and @cozycottagekimms to load up on needed items for the Fall followed by the ultimate stop @theblueowlbakery for sweet treats for the weekend. It was a great start our day before heading out to get our gardening supplies!  Big Guy and I love good bar-b-que. In our travels, we saw the sign for @missourihickbbq and decided we had to stop there for lunch. This fantastic place is in Cuba, Missouri and drew us in from the moment we parked the car. We were immediately greeted and taken to our table. The room we were in had the look and feel of a horse barn which was charming and thematically on point. We ordered our food, pulled chicken sandwich for the Big Guy, and a brisket sandwich for me, with a side of mustard potato salad. We started to check out the five different sauces on the table and looked up in time to see our lunch plates arriving with our delicious lunch selections. Wow, that was fast! We tucked in and had a wonderful lunch. The best surprise was the amount of food and the low cost of the entire meal. Winner! If you ever “plan to motor west,” I highly recommend you stop by this fantastic place on historic Route 66.  Is anyone else ready for Fall? I think the last heat wave did me in so I have been forcing my love of Fall to “come on down” so I can pull out my sweaters and hot beverages. I can tell the shift is happening in the kitchen as well. I am longing to make soups and chili again. I have already started moving the “summer” alcohol to the back of the cabinet and bringing forward our Fall favorites such as calvados and Big Guy’s winter favorite, peat-based scotch. I know we are getting close to the turn in season as the other night I noticed our dogwood starting to take on a reddish sheen. As a retired academic, the real sign is the kids are back to school! One last sign of Fall coming is we turned to another favorite Fall drink the other night which we call a homecoming. It consists of half Bailey’s and half Amaretto. It was still too hot to light up the firepit, but this wonderful drink gives us hope for the not distant future of fires and fall drinks in the backyard! |
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December 2024
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